Wednesday, May 15, 2013

This is a special (OMG) 10th anniversary celebration of the creation of my student film Hansel und Gretel: Sie Sind Innen Hasslich. It was first shown at the graduation ceremony of my animation school around about 10 years ago today. Since then it's been shown at a few other venues like:

The Empire Film Festival in New York

...in 2003, not 2009.

The Stuttgart International Trickfilm Festival in Stuttgart, Germany

The Eat My Shorts Film Festival at Just For Laughs in Montreal

The Yorkton Film Festival in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada (yes that place exists)

And it was featured on a CBC program called ZED.

This show featured independent short film both on TV and the internet before it was pretty much killed by Youtube.

CBC made another attempt at something like this with a show called Exposure. My Hansel and Gretel film was on there too.

The show was much like ZED except there was a contest involved. Sadly, my Hasnel and Gretel film was just a few votes shy of being in the running to even be considered. But a fellow graduate of my school Kelly Morrison actually DID make it into the running with her animated opus Beatless Nick.

In those 10 years, my film has had a rather bi-polar range of reviews about it. The response was either "THIS FILM COMPLETELY ROCKS!!!!!" all the way to "THIS IS A DISGUSTING PROMOTION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!!!!!" There were hardly any opinions in the middle of the road at all. I'm guessing that to mean that I've done good.

Here's hoping I get a chance to make another film sometime within the next 10 years. Who knows what the reactions will be then.